Gullivers Oldham Street Manchester

It's me! I can't keep up with all these different social media sites, but it is this one that gets neglected the most, so I'm going to try muster up a little of the force and put something down.

Last night (25/08/2012) we played a show at Gulliver's on Oldham St. in the northern quarter of Manchester's city centre. The night was organised by fledgling record label Longevity Records who are based in Manchester and offer "to get quality new music released without the usual big budget restrictions!" as their mission statement. They go on to say "we strive to give bands & artists that elusive first stepping stone to becoming a professional act, by helping them with their initial releases & videos through to the heights we all want to achieve. We work alongside a fantastic video team and Recording studio and have passion to help and promote what we believe in." , and from what I have seen they are doing just that. Thanks to Ian and his team for putting us on.

Gulliver's is a great venue, a bit like the Yorkshire House in Lancaster but without the over powering stench of piss, and the staff are excellent, from the doormen to the bar staff through to the DJ and sound engineer, all made us feel properly welcome. Cheers.

It was the usual on the night; bands play and then fuck off home, downstairs or somewhere else without sticking around to support the other acts...after enjoying the support of their successors all evening. Poor.

The Blackhearts set was excellent, as you might guess, and was watched over by a certain Manchester legend who stood in front a microphone for The Fall. Yup, Mark E Smith was in attendance along with some of the travelling faithful, a gang of French folk and a selection of Gulliver's finest. What a noise they made! I was really blown away by the way they all got involved and it drove us on to put on one of our best shows ever - at least it certainly felt that way.

So, we made some new friends, caught up with some old ones, had the best time on stage, poured with sweat for 40 glorious minutes, on a rainy evening in Manchester, and I only had one drink all night.

Thanks Gulliver's x

Turner

Rough Beats Festival 2012

Blackheart Afterglow have been confirmed for the Rough Beats Festival 8-10 June 2012 The festival started in the early 00's in someone's back garden in Clapham, North Yorks, with about 90 people watching the owner's son's band (so we were told). Jump on nine years and the organisers are booking artists such as Pulled Apart By Horses(Friday 8th), Azealia Banks, Django Django and Super Fury Animals front man Gruff Rhys...and The Blackhearts(Friday 8th)! Amazing how things start though ain't it?

Also on the bill will be Lancaster duo The Lovely Eggs and Morecambe's Joe McCorriston as well as Red Dwarf and radio soulster Craig Charles. More acts TBA.

Weekend tickets are £65 inc camping, with day passes priced at £30.

This is the News

It's been a long time since we last posted so, where to start? The first gig on the year was the return to Ma Murphy's on Jan 14 (with support from Joe McCorriston who was fantastic), we were a bit worried (but only a little) about the turn out as it was mid month and just after the festive season...we needn't have bothered. Last time we played Ma's it was the battle of the bands competition and so it was rammed with all the support for the different bands, this time it was pretty much near the same figures on the floor. We were blown away with the turn out and with the amount of torrential noise coming back at us after the songs, Morecambe were having it proper.

We've been working on some new tracks that will be recorded hopefully late March as before that we will be shooting a video for Too Much Blood on March 15. I'll not bang on about it until it is done and stuck on YouTube. I will say though that we have a script and a story line, a great director and the camera man/tech is reputed to be excellent. I can't wait for the clatter board to snap.

We've been confirmed for the Printworks Festival on May bank holiday and have added our first date in Liverpool at the student union later this month on the 25th. We return to the Stonewell on March 3 with special guests and recently re-formed Natural Thing, plus it is Turner's birthday weekend so it should be a belter!

See you soon, Blackhearts

Walk into the Sea review

Red Rose Music has done a review of the new EP Walk into the Sea which you can check out here - Red Rose Music. We'll forgive them for getting the lyrical content wrong (this time Mr Bennett) but next time we're sending them a visit from the Rippers and Thieves...Red Rose champion the great unsigned, and those lurking around the edges of the pyre on their online pages and they now have a slot on Frequency Radio. Check it out.

We will be shooting a music video this winter, and Turner is currently in the early stages of talks about scoring a short film: more of that when we have details.

Next gig is at the Stonewell on November 5 with Thunder Jackson and the Bandits (Classic Rock/R&B) followed the next day by a slot at the Bobbin Beer Festival (9pm) with Massive Wagons (Hard Rock), The Dead Puppeteers (acoustic/alt/indie) and Beyond the Sun (Metal).

Until next time.

Epic win for Blackhearts

Blackhearts

Battle of the Bands down to the wire

Our local music scene is thriving at present and the Ma Murphy's battle of the bands final was further proof.

While bands such as The Heartbreaks, Idol Minds and Liar Liar have grabbed the headlines of late, five entrants in the Irish pub's contest on August 25 are definitely coming up on the rails.
Up to 300 people jammed into the pub to hear the performances from punk metal teenagers Scarred ID, some of whom were only 15, rockers Blackheart Afterglow, funk soul Big Door Open, melodic pop act The Remedy Project and loud and proud heavy metal-heads Massive Wagons.




Scarred ID had their army of young fans screaming with excitment as they played a mixture of original songs and covers including Green Day's American Idiot and Enter Sandman by Metallica. They and Massive Wagons ran the eventual winners, Blackheart Afterglow from Morecambe, very close but in the end the five piece's dynamic brand of brooding rock 'n' roll earned them the £500 prize. The band, fronted by Turner, are tipped to go on to great things.

Massive Wagons

The music was fantastic and there was a great atmosphere in the pub. Judges were Greg Lambert, chief reporter and entertainments editor for The Visitor newspaper, Cherish Otoo from Ma Murphy's and musicians Cameron Seddon and Jeepster Gaz (Rattle and Hum).

Report by The Visitor 6/9/2011





Blackheart Afterglow will be playing at the MS Charity Fundraiser on October 7 @ the Gregson Arts Centre, Lancaster. Further info can be found on the Facebook Event Page